Students may have been stopped by a pony-tailed man wearing a Led Zeppelin T-shirt who was handing out booklets and saying “help stop violence" throughout the day on April 19.
Joe Espinosa, a volunteer from One Step for Animals, stood in between Bracken Library and Pruis Hall all day, handing out booklets to students in an effort to spread awareness and motivate people to reduce the consumption of chicken.
One Step for Animals is a non-profit organization that focuses on direct public outreach and Internet advocacy, according to onestepforanimals.weebly.com.
Reducing consumption of meat can make a big difference for animals, and it's something everyone can do, Espinosa said.
In total, Espinosa said the average American eats about 23 chickens, one turkey, one third of a pig and one tenth of a cow each year.
“If they were to avoid consuming the smaller animals — chickens and turkey — even if they replaced that same spawn on their plates with the same amount of pig and cow flesh, they would go from eating 24.4 farm animals to less than one a year," Espinosa said.
Espinosa volunteers for the organization every week and travels to different Midwestern colleges to preach his message.
Each reaction from students is different, but Ball State has always been the best college, he said.
While it is a difficult topic to discuss, Espinosa said the goal behind distributing the harm reduction booklet is to raise awareness.
“We are hoping people will learn about how modern farming treats animals and will hopefully take that knowledge to reduce consumption,” Espinosa said. “We just want people to think about the change they could make.”
Ethan Winchester, a student at the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics and Humanities said while many people are aware of animal consumption, not many people will do anything about it.
“I am taking this [booklet] and situation seriously, but I am not going to do anything about it,” Winchester said. “I feel like the people who actually accept them from him will actually look through it and care. As for the ones who didn’t accept one, there is a reason they didn’t take it in the first place.”
Shelby Vedder, a freshman nursing major, agreed and said although most people might not care to read the booklet, animal cruelty is a serious issue.
“Animal cruelty is awful, and I wish it wasn’t a thing,” Vedder said “I’m not a vegetarian or anything, and I like my meat, but I don’t think it is right how we go about treating these animals and the way they suffer. There are more humane options.”
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